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Christine Jacobs-Wagner is interested in the governing principles and spatiotemporal mechanisms involved in bacterial cell replication, with an emphasis on cell growth, cell morphogenesis, and cell cycle functions. Jacobs-Wagner and her team’s goal is to obtain a complete mechanistic understanding that integrates the spatiotemporal and physicochemical information of the cell. The team works in Escherichia coli, Caulobacter crescentus, and the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi, using an arsenal of genetic, biochemical, computational, and advanced cell imaging tools. Their current efforts are focused on identifying the mechanisms involved in cell morphogenesis and cell cycle processes, characterizing the material properties of the bacterial cytoplasm, and linking this knowledge to bacterial physiology and pathogenesis.